Fulfilling our Social Responsibility

1. Recognizing the establishment of corporate ethics as one of its most important missions, top management shall exert its leadership to ensure that the spirit of this Policy is adopted throughout the Company, and shall assume full responsibility for solving any problems when any event inconsistent with that spirit occurs.
2. Every person with subordinate employees shall not only act in a self-disciplined manner, but shall also always provide guidance and assistance to his/her subordinate staff to ensure that their conduct is in conformity with our corporate ethics.
3. Every officer and employee of the NTT Group shall not only comply with all laws and regulations, social standards, and internal company rules whether in Japan or overseas, but officers and employees shall also hold the highest ethical philosophy within himself/herself both in public and in any private situations. Among other things, each officer and employee, as an officer or employee of a member of a Global Information Sharing Corporate Group, shall keep himself/herself fully aware that any disclosure of customer or other internal privileged information constitutes a materially wrongful act. Also, as a member of a group of companies which holds great social responsibilities, he/she shall strictly refrain from giving or receiving from customers, business partners, and other interested parties excessive gratuities
4. Each NTT Group company, at the first opportunity, shall take initiatives to provide training programs in order to help its officers and employees enhance their awareness of our corporate ethics.
5. Every officer and employee of the NTT Group shall direct his/her efforts to prevent wrongful or scandalous acts which may potentially occur as specialization and advancement of our business proceeds. Each NTT Group company shall improve its system to prevent such acts, including, for instance, the re-assignment of contract representatives who have remained with the same customers for a long period of time, and the improvement of monitoring tools to protect customer and other information.
6. Any officer or employee who may come to know of the occurrence of any wrongful act or any scandal shall promptly report the wrongful act or scandal to his/her superior or other appropriate persons. If he/she is not able to make such a reporting, he/she may contact the "Corporate Ethics Help Line (Contact Point)." It should be noted that every officer and employee who reports the occurrence of any wrongful act or scandal shall be protected so that the reporting party shall not suffer any negative consequences due to such reporting.
7. In the event of an occurrence of any wrongful act or scandal, each NTT Group company shall be committed to the settlement of the problem by taking appropriate steps through a speedy and accurate fact finding process, and responding in a timely, suitable, and transparent manner in order to fulfill its social accountability.

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Building a framework to promote corporate ethics:

• Establishing the Compliance Committee (secretariat: Legal and Internal Audit Department)
• Appointing persons in charge to promote compliance in each organization
• Establishing the Global Compliance Rule

Investigating and finding facts in the event of misconduct and scandals:

• Establishing of NTT Communications Group Hotline

Raising awareness about corporate ethics:

• Offering common training to learn about compliance and integrity for all employees, and training programs by responsibility or theme
• Soliciting compliance slogans

(1) Responding to international norms

As a company that operates globally, The NTT Group discloses its global human rights policies both internally and externally, in addition to meeting the requirements of international covenants and conventions.

(2) Addressing critically important human rights issues

We will continue to identify important human rights that it needs to focus on from four perspectives and act while respecting these rights.

• ① Promotion of “Diversity & Inclusion”, a concept that recognizes diverse cultures and values (Prohibition of discrimination, respect for freedom and rights, fairness in the workplace, economic disparities and poverty)
• ② Promotion of “Technology that is based on high ethical standards” which balances both high ethical standards and technology (Technology, data bias, privacy, personal information protection, security)
• ③ Promotion of "Healthy work in daily life" to create a workplace where employees can work in physical and mental health with enthusiasm and motivation (Diverse work styles, workplace safety, freedom of association and collective bargaining, living wage)
• ④ Promotion of “Appropriate expression, speech, and display” in consideration of human rights (Expressions in advertisement and displays, freedom of expression, accessibility)

(3) Scope of application

This policy applies to all employees and officers of the NTT Group. We also ask our suppliers and business partners to support this policy and strive to respect human rights.

(4) Due diligence

Based on the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we will use the human rights due diligence process to identify, prevent, mitigate, and correct human rights issues on a global scale, and strive to raise awareness of human rights and improve human rights management throughout the Group. Due diligence will be conducted throughout the entire value chain, and direct dialogue will be the basis of our efforts, especially with important suppliers. We disclose the status of our efforts on our website, sustainability report, human rights reports, etc., to enable continuous evaluation and improvement.

(5) Accusation and remedy

In order to prevent human rights violations, we have established internal and external contact points for whistle-blowing at each Group company, and we promise to protect whistle-blowers from unfair personnel actions (e.g., dismissal, demotion) or other disadvantages as a result of their reporting. In addition, consultations and reports received at the contact points will be reported appropriately to the Board of Directors to ensure transparency. We will take sincere measures to resolve the problems.

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As a company that develops business on a global basis, NTT Communications places the utmost importance on solving human rights issues, including discrimination, as a part of its efforts to build a rich corporate culture that respects human rights. As we strive to maintain a corporate constitution that does not tolerate any form of discrimination, we are working to find solutions to human rights and discrimination issues through every facet of our day-to-day business activities.

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Establishment and implementation of human rights protection measures:

• Soliciting and adoption of human rights slogans
• On-site training

Planning and operation of human rights protection training

Human rights protection training programs for all employees, top managers, and leaders, and programs aimed at prevention of sexual/power harassment (abuse of authority)

Providing counseling for human rights-related issues

 

Our most important mission, in addition to protecting information that is vital to our customers and providing services they know are safe, is contributing to an enhancement of our customers' security system. We regard security as our top priority in providing services to our customers, and we pledge to work with them to achieve an optimum security system. We will do our utmost to ensure security in all phases of the value chain from technology and service development to establishment and operation. Furthermore, as ICT professionals, each one of us will raise our capabilities to respond to security-related issues.

Three Resolutions

1. We regard security as our top priority in providing services to our customers, and we will do our utmost to enhance their security.
2. As an ICT solution partner entrusted with our customers' vital information, we will work with them at all times to ensure their security.
3. Business partners and contract employees are also important supporting members of NTT Communications. We will therefore collectively strive to ensure our own security.

Based on NTT Communications Group’s mission, “Creating communication methods that open up new possibilities for people and our world” and given that artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to be a function that creates new value for achieving our mission, we implement the possibilities of AI soundly in society so as to solve social challenges and contribute to the creation of a sustainable society. With rapid technology advancements, AI brings about a variety of benefits to our society. At the same time, however, AI can pose ethical and other unexpected problems since it is still in the process of technological evolution.
With this in mind, NTT Communications Group promotes all initiatives to pursue and manage the possibilities of AI and the risks of AI based on the following basic principles.